Thursday, 23 November 2017

The Power of Words in Art by Mark Titchner

Each year, Mary Anne Hobbs’ hosts the BBC Radio 6 Music annual art weekender, Art Is Everywhere. While listening to the radio programmes, listeners are encouraged to take inspiration from the words or the music and create an original piece of art which they then share online.

This year Art is Everywhere will be happening on Saturday 2 December and Sunday 3 December. The Saturday show will be broadcast live from Ferens Gallery in Hull, tying in directly with the 2017 Turner Prize.

In the run up to the launch of Art Is Everywhere, artist Mark Titchner talked to Mary Anne Hobbs about the power of words in art, particularly in public spaces.

Titchner's work utilises song lyrics, and words from creeds, treatises and political manifestos to explore different belief systems, and the way in which we 'receive thought and ideas'.

The artist reflects on how he first became interested in art using text, and recognises that the numerous notebooks that he filled with words were probably the starting point for him making work with words.

He is interested in the voice - how we share information, who gets to speak, who we listen to, where they are placed in the world. The majority of his work exists outside of the gallery, in the public sphere.

He began using text that he found, for example song lyrics or lines from books. His main concern was that the material had the potential to engage anyone.

One of his artworks, 'What I want more than anything else' involved Titchner talking to young people, aged 13-25, from across Hull, Burnley and Wigan. They were asked "What would you like more than anything else." Their handwritten responses were enlarged and made into banners, flags, murals, hidden bookmarks and on video screens that were displayed in the public. Each artwork was titled with the name of the individual who responded to the question.

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Statement

Helen Shaddock (born United Kingdom, 1986) is an artist based in Newcastle whose practice incorporates video, sound, writing, installation, sculpture and performance. Shaddock uses her personal experience of mental illness to inform the work she makes. She seeks to situate the audience in multi-layered psychological and physical situations.

Shaddock’s most recent project ‘Voices: Within and Without’, was funded by Arts Council England Grants for the Arts, and involved working with other voice hearers, artists, researchers, academics and Mental Health organisations to investigate visual hallucinations and the experience of hearing voices. During the project Shaddock participated in a Spoken Word residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada. It culminated in ‘THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER’, an audio-visual installation at The Word, South Shields in April 2018. Other recent exhibitions include WHICH WAY NORTH, Great North Museum:Hancock, Newcastle, June – Sept 2018, Lyres of Lemniscate, Drone Ensemble, WORKPLACE FOUNDATION/TUSK Festival, Gateshead, Sept-Oct 2018, and Doing Fine, Marginendeavour, a collaborative exhibition with David Foggo, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle, Oct 2018.